UK At a Crossroads With Regards To Energy 'Challenge'

Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary’s new ‘Dash for Gas’ is expected to be part of the Energy Bill to be put before Commons shortly.

Ofgem put out a report earlier this month which warns that Britain will be unable to keep up with the country’s demand by as early as winter 2015.

The UK is faced with a major challenge with regards to how it continues to meet the needs of the country, at the same time addressing the problem of climate change. The methods used to generate electricity are changing and this is partly due to the replacement of aging generation plants and also due to the development of renewable energy because of climate change.

The rapid growth of renewable energy generation, the development of other electric generation and the planned closures of power plants that are aging has placed major pressure on the energy networks of the UK and as well as the energy delivered to businesses and homes.

Even if Britain were to move to a more secure green energy supply, one of the argument is that the UK will still require fossil fuels to help with the transition,

Two top names in the energy industry Malcolm Webb the chief executive of Oil and gas UK and James Vaccaro the director of Triodos Renewables are to discuss the way the UK must plan for its long-term energy needs.

The replacement of power stations that are scheduled to close over the next 10 years at the same time meet the need for continuous electricity demand over this period the UK will need more than 20GW of new generation by the year 2020.

The UK has also pledged to cut greenhouse gasses by 80% by the time 2050 comes along. But before then the country is committed to a reduction of emissions of 20% by the year 2020, therefor the UK is working towards an EU target of 15% of renewable energy by the year 2020.

In order to meet this challenge the UK government adopted an energy policy that will promote:

Energy efficiency

Use of renewable energy such as wind generation, tidal generation and solar generation

And a diverse mix of energy sources that include the cleaner fossil fuels that are meeting the emission targets - gas and nuclear

The government has strong faith that it wind energy will be able to help the country to meet its renewable energy targets, and that nuclear will be part of this new energy generation to fill the gap as it is a type of low carbon generation.